Full of characters

Down in London this weekend, we found ourselves in the vicinity of Whitehall and Westminster at the same time as the protests against continuing Israeli attacks on Lebanon and allowed ourselves to get caught up in the melee.

Outside Downing Street, who should we spy on the other side of the railings but tikka-tanned publicity-shy Respect MP George Galloway. Not everyone was quite sure who he was, though - we overheard the following exchange:

"It's George Galloway!"

"Who's George Galloway?"

"There, George Galloway!"

"Oh, the bloke off 'Big Brother'".

I was tempted to shout out "Do the cat! Do the cat!" but it didn't seem the time or the place.

A couple of hours later, outside Tate Modern, we came across another character. Don Crown, grey of hair and bushy of beard, is Budgieman, singing his own compositions (available from his website, along with T-shirts) while his budgerigars perform tricks. He's been featured in a recent issue of Chat magazine, don't you know?

With us having recently acquired a pair of budgies (christened Vic and Bob), we were naturally intrigued to see what he did. Sadly our two seem uninterested in being trained to perform even the simplest of tasks. Best leave it to the professionals, I suppose.

(All in all, it was a very good if pretty lazy day: picnic lunch in the park in the sun; cold pints overlooking the Thames outside The Morpeth Arms and then The Horniman; and a fantastic meal at Cantina Del Ponte.)